Tuesday, 25 June 2013

My Guest on the blog is J J Marsh

Disheartened by her recent performance, Beatrice Stubbs takes a sabbatical from the Metropolitan Police for a gourmet tour of Northern Spain. In Vitoria, she encounters a distant acquaintance. Beautiful, bloody-minded journalist Ana Herrero is onto a story. Beatrice, scenting adventure, offers her expertise. The two women are sucked into a mystery of missing persons, violent threats, mutilated bodies and industrial-scale fraud. They are out of their depth. With no official authority and unsure who to trust, they find themselves up to their necks in corruption, blackmail and Rioja. Beatrice calls for the cavalry. The boys are back, and this time, it's a matter of taste. But when her instincts prove fallible, Beatrice discovers that justice is matter of interpretation.

Readers always surprise me with their reactions, so it’s hard to tell. Some people enjoy the locations, others like the build-up of tension, or the characters, the food, or even the underlying themes. I hope one feature people will enjoy about Tread Softly is the behind-the-scenes look at the wine trade. Another is the cover. Jane Dixon-Smith has made a beautiful job of the e-cover, and James Lane’s original oil painting for the paperback makes it an object of desire.

TreadSoftly is now the third book in the Beatrice Stubbs series - how do you sustain the series, and does it get easier or harder the more involved you get with the characters?

That’s an interesting question and one I had to think about. I’d planned all six books before even writing the first, so the series in terms of locations, adventures and character development is pretty much mapped out. The characters get easier, definitely. But the more you write, the more you become aware of your own writerly tics. I have to be vigilant and force myself to find new, more creative ways of solving problems.

Location seems to be a strong factor in all of your books - why did you choose to set TreadSoftly in Northern Spain?

The Basque Country is unique. It has a language like no other, a complex political past, an amazing variety of landscapes and an intriguing culture. A wine-producing location was essential to my story and I have a special place in my heart for Vitoria. And not only my heart. The whole region has a legendary reputation for food and wine – San Sebastian is known as the gourmet capital of Europe. I had an absolute ball doing the research.

Can you tell us what are you writing next?

More research. The next book, Cold Pressed, is set in the Greek islands. So I need to explore the culture, the landscape, death rituals, geography, legends, the language, architecture, the police system, the atmosphere, and of course, the food and drink. The book is due out in Summer 2014, presuming I ever finish the research ...

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Jill - thanks so much for spending time with us, it's been great fun to read more about